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Topic: How to Maintain the Hard Disk Drive (Read 1247 times)

The hard disk is the main storage device of a computer system. Apart from the operating system and program files, it also contains all important data, like pictures, music, and other data. We certainly don't want lose these important data. So, maintaining good health of the hard disk drive is very important. Most of the cases, hard dive gives various types of warning before getting out of order. If you take proper initiative and rectify the issues, you can enjoy hassle-free computing for long. You can also get in touch with a computer repair company in this aspect.

In this article we have discussed what you should do to maintain good health of hard disk drive. Disk cleanup is a very useful utility in this regard. This tool removes the unwanted files and free up space on the hard disk. With this tool you can remove temporary Internet files as well as downloaded program files, such as ActiveX controls and Java applets, temporary Windows files and empty the Recycle Bin. Disk cleanup also deletes optional Windows components that you are not using and installed programs that you no longer use.

Would you like to know how to use the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows XP? To launch Disk Cleanup click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. You will find a dialogue window which will allow you to select the drive you want to clean up. You need to select the drive and click OK. Now the drive will be examined by the Disk Cleanup tool and it will determine the amount of space that can potentially be freed up. Once it is done, you will get the result which files could be deleted and what amount of space could be emptied.

Another important thing that one should do is check for hard disk errors. You can use Chkdsk.exe command. This utility verifies the logical integrity of a file system. If there is some logical inconsistencies in the hard drive, this utility takes the required actions and repair the file system data. To launch disk error checking, double-click My Computer and right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check for errors and select properties. Here need to choose the Tools tab. Click Check now option. A dialogue box will open up showing the Check disk options. Select the options as appropriate and click Start.

You will get a message stating that the check cannot be performed immediately, and the system needs to be restarted for this. Click Yes to so schedule the disk check. Once the system will get restarted, the chkdsk.exe utility will be run and all the metadata on the volume will be examined in five separate phases. The phases are Verifying file data, Verifying security descriptors, Verifying indexes, Verifying files, and Verifying free space. Once the utility completes its task, the operating system will continue to load like a normal system start-up.

Disk Defragmenter is another very useful tool to keep the hard disk in good health. To launch Disk Defragmenter tool right click on the particular drive and click properties. Then go to tools tab and choose Defragment Now.